God wanted someone to love, and someone who would love Him back.  And so God took some clay from the ground and made it into the shape of a man.  God then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.  God named the first man Adam.

God was very pleased as everything He had created was very good, and He had done a perfect job.  Most of all, He was pleased that He had made man with a soul.   It is with this soul that man loves others and can love God.  It's the part of us that never dies, but goes back to God.

God wanted man to keep Him company and look after the beautiful garden called Eden, which He made for Adam to live in.  This garden was full of many wonderful things, and beautiful plants and flowers grew everywhere.  Birds sang in the trees, and streams flowed merrily over pebbles as they watered the earth.  God brought all the animals to Adam one by one to see what he would name them.  Adam named them all!  Do you think he did a good job? (Let the children respond).

God felt sorry for Adam and said, "None of the animals are like him, he needs someone to share his life and care for him, and someone who he can love and cherish."  And so that night while he was asleep, God took a rib from Adam's side and made a woman.  When Adam awoke the following morning, what a surprise he had!  He found a lady named Eve lying asleep beside him.  Adam was so happy when Eve smiled at him, that she became his wife!

God told Adam and Eve that it was their job to take care of the garden.  God blessed them and said, "All this is for you, but never touch the tree in the middle of the Garden.  That tree gives knowledge of good and evil.  The day you eat its fruit, you will die."

This meant that they would die without God's Spirit living in them, and would be separated from God, and would no longer be able to talk and see God face-to-face.

Lucifer was one of God's beautiful created angels who lived in Heaven.  But he became very proud of his beauty and responsibilities and wanted to be like God.  Because of this, God cast him out of Heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15), and he became Satan, the devil.

Ever since that happened, he has been angry with God.  He hates everything that is good, and he tries to spoil God's beautiful plans.  He saw how satisfied and happy Adam and Eve were, so he said, "I'm going to spoil God's plan for man."  He knew that if he could cause them to do wrong, they could not live forever with God.

Satan came into the garden in the form of a snake one day.  Eve was gathering fruit for a meal when she heard a silky voice behind her say, "Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from all the trees?"   Eve turned around to see a snake talking to her.  Eve answered, "God told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

"I don't think such lovely fruit will do you any harm," lied the snake, "You'll become just like God and be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong."

The woman looked at the fruit and thought how good and tasty it looked.  She thought it would be wonderful to be as wise as God.   She believed the snake's lie and ate some of the fruit.  Suddenly she felt guilty because she had disobeyed God and knew she'd done something wrong.  Eve picked some more fruit and took it back to Adam and he ate the fruit as well.

A change came over Adam and Eve for they had disobeyed God and they became unhappy and fearful of God.  And now sin came into their hearts (Romans 5:12).  From then on, they would get cross, want their own way, and think sinful thoughts.  God had created them with beauty, but now they were ashamed of their bodies as they were no longer clothed in God's special way.

They were ashamed to be seen; so they picked fig leaves and made clothes like aprons to wear.  Later that day, the Lord came into the garden to visit them, and they heard God calling them.  Quickly they hid in the bushes, but God knew where they were.  When God asked them if they had eaten from the tree that He had told them not to touch, they blamed each other for their disobedience and sin.

God punished the snake for deceiving Eve.  He said that from then on it would be cursed and would crawl on the ground.  Because Eve didn't obey God's rule, God punished her.  She would have pain when she gave birth to babies, and her husband would rule over her.  He punished Adam for his disobedience and now man would have to work hard for a living, and some day he would die and be buried in the ground.   There would be thistles and weeds, and man would need to work hard to grow food from the soil.  All these punishments came to pass and have been this way ever since Adam's time.

God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed Him.  He made them clothes from animal skins and then put the man and woman out of the garden, and placed an angel with a flaming sword stand guard at the entrance to Eden so they couldn't enter again.  But, God left a wonderful promise to them, that at the right time He would send the Saviour to the earth.

God made rules to protect us, but we all have broken God's rules and disobeyed God.  Sins are when we disobey God, like telling lies and being naughty.  Satan told lies to Eve, and tries to deceive us as well.  He wants to make us sin, and say and do wrong things.

But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us and take our punishment for everything we have done wrong.  Adam and Eve had the choice whether to obey or disobey God, and we also must make the choice whether we will obey God.

What must we do if we disobey God and do wrong things? (Let the children respond).  Yes, we must ask God to forgive us and make us clean inside again.

Jesus loves you so much and wants you to invite Him into your heart so that you can become His dear child (John 3:16).  You could ask Jesus right now to forgive you for all the sin and wrong things you have done.  That will make God very happy!

God bless.